Monday, November 15, 2021

Sheppard Takes Mods in the Marsh to Conclude STSS Cajun Swing

 The final night of the Cajun Swing for the Short Track Super Series for Big Block/Small Block Modifieds was held on Saturday night, November 13th at the Super Bee Speedway near Chatham Louisiana. This race would be the "Mods In The Marsh 75" with seventy five laps of racing for the Modifieds on the quarter mile track with twenty thousand dollars going to the winner of the race. 

Along with the Modifieds, Crate Late Models, Limited Mods and Street Stocks would also be racing for the final event of the five night series. Amazingly, all five nights were able to run as track officials steered the ship through the weather threatened event at Ark-La-Tex with the rest of the nights not threatened by weather although the heavy rains of that night would make for somewhat challenging track conditions for a couple of days. And of the last night of the series, the temperatures would take a drastic change for the worse with it being every un Southern like. But the hearty fans prevailed and the northern drivers were more than used to snappy temperatures at this time of the season. 

For the last race of the series and the event that paid by far the most, everyone that had anything left to run was on hand and twenty seven Modifieds signed in to race. In fact, several were just holding on by a threat and hoping for the feature start money so they opted to scratch out of heat races and just start in the back of the main event. The support for the series this year was good with twenty three of the drivers making all five nights and thirty forty different race cars signing in to race over the course of the week. The difference between the northeast equipment and the La/Texas cars is still quite marked but hopefully as more drivers from the Cajun area get involved the quality of their equipment was ascend and they will become more competitive. 

I was proud of the STSS group as even on the final night with big money on the line, they continued to use their format of drawing for starting positions and then redrawing the top twelve for the feature. This made for some outstanding heat races with plenty on the line and the redraw for the feature allowing us the pleasure of seeing some real charges through the field instead of a time trial induced lineup that more often than not produces a high speed parade. 

We have seen a number of drivers make big charges through the fields and that happened once again on Saturday as Ryan Godown, who historically has redraw terribly, still managed to work himself into the lead at least briefly and he would also go on to be the series point champion. 

Tonight's feature race would be another very good race with three different leaders before the checkered flew. Jack Lehner would lead the opening few laps before he was passed by Matt Sheppard for the top spot. Hard runs were put on by Erick Rudolph, Godown and Stewart Friesen as they as they all moved into contention. 

The track was considerably different from Friday night as twenty hours allowed track officials to smooth out the racing surface and the track surprised just about everyone by the way it kept changing and moving the fast lane around. 

Sheppard led a number of laps with two long green flag periods but Rudolph and then Godown kept the heat on him. Lapped traffic was heavy once again and trying to weave through that traffic and still hit the fast marks on the track was a challenge, especially as the groove moved around. 

Godown, ever the challenger, would slip past Sheppard one time and lead a lap at about the three quarter mark, but then Sheppard got back up on the wheel and retook the top spot just one lap later. The track did appear to start taking rubber with about ten laps to go and this caught Godown out of the groove with Rudolph grabbing second back. 

Sheppard was very careful to protect the low line at the end and he would drive on for the twenty K win with only a dozen of the starters still on the track. The first nine finishers would be drivers from the Northeast. Sheppard would be the top money winner of the week while Godown would get a nice bonus for winning the point title. With four different winners in five nights of racing, the STSS put on a good show every night that was officiated well, was very quickly run off and the drivers provided very entertaining action with plenty of hard driving. 

Not to beat a dear horse here, but the support classes once again on this night didn't provide much in the way of support. While the top class, racing for twenty K, didn't feel the need to time trial, someone decided that the Crate Late Models should so they group qualified and that pretty much killed the racing in that class for the night. 

Shane Hebert was the quick qualifier, won the first heat and then led every lap of the feature race with no one even providing a hint of a challenge. The only reason there was any passing at all was because second fastest qualifier Raymond Taylor broke during the main and needed a push off the track. This allowed Kenneth Sims to take over the second spot. 

Thirteen Street Stocks were on hand as somehow that old Ford and the VW from last night were also allowed to run with the Street Stocks(I can't explain it either), but Bobby Chandler would go on to win that race. 

Limited Mods rounded out the card and C.J. Howell, who started on the pole, would lead the entire race for the win. At least the Limited Mods didn't qualify but they did the next best thing as started straight up from the heats which pretty much killed the passing in that race. The program ran just a bit later on Saturday with the longer feature race but STSS officials moved things along well with the cold setting in as they bypassed the on track redraw and any kind of driver introductions as they mission was clear in getting fans in and out of the track in a quick manner which was appreciated. 

So there are many good things to say about the STSS. They ran off well organized and professional programs. Their officials were pleasant and reachable. They paid their drivers well and appeared to treat them all equally and they worked their hardest to get all the shows in, even when the weather made things difficult. They raced hard and put on a good show. As I've said earlier, about the only letdown was the poor shows overall put on by the support classes and as I said, when they do this again next year and it sounds like that is already a plan, I would pick just one class, pay them well and go with that. 

Thanks again to all the folks from the STSS and the track officials from the various speedways that worked hard to prepare a good racing surface each and every night. 

My apologies for a slightly tardy report on this last race but it was a seventeen hour trip home plus work was calling early on Monday morning. 

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